In an election filled with surprising results, Ralph Goodale did the expected.
He won his seventh consecutive term as the Liberal MP for Saskatchewan’s Wascana riding, even as the party’s vote collapsed across the country and leader Michael Ignatieff failed to win his seat.
Goodale’s margin of victory, however, dropped five points from 46 percent to 41. The Conservatives ran a closer second with Ian Shields on the ballot, picking up 37 percent compared to 35 percent in 2008, and the NDP vote rose from 15 to 20 percent. The Green Party also lost support.
Read Also
Canola oil transloading facility opens
DP World just opened its new canola oil transload facility at the Port of Vancouver. It can ship one million tonnes of the commodity per year.
A satisfied but subdued group of supporters at Goodale’s Regina campaign headquarters watched the results come in from across Canada with a mix of emotions.
They celebrated their candidate but the larger picture loomed. For the first time ever, the Liberal party did not finish a federal election in first or second place.
“Obviously I’m not very happy with that result,” deputy leader Goodale told reporters.
He would not pin the blame on Ignatieff, saying it was too early to think about replacing the leader and responding to the question of his possible candidacy with, “I’m not going there tonight.”
Ken Rasmussen, associate director of the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, said earlier during the campaign that he thought there was no chance Goodale would seek the leadership because the party doesn’t have a strong base in the West.
Goodale also doesn’t speak fluent French.
“This is a profound set of circumstances that the party has to weigh very carefully and I think it would be unwise to jump to any conclusions this evening,” Goodale said.
Although polls indicated the Liberals addressed in their platform the issues of most concern to Canadians -health care and child care, for example -the message didn’t resonate with voters, he said.
Goodale conceded that rebuilding the party and its policies will be easier in a majority Parliament.
Under the minority government of the past few years the parties have been preoccupied with the prospect of another election.
Two things can happen now under a majority and in a longer time frame.
“People will see the real goods from Stephen Harper and I suspect there will be a number of things emerging over the next five years that Canadians will not be happy with,” he said.
“The flip side of that is that we will be in a position of not constantly boxing at shadows and threatened elections to work on our long-term plan and do some of the fundamental restorative work within the Liberal party.”
Some of that restoration will occur in the West, where Goodale is a respected voice, and some will occur in Quebec.
Goodale said the NDP break-through in that province is a sign that voters are willing to give federalist parties a chance.
